I often get that look of sympathy when I tell people I live in a one bedroom apartment with two kids. When I first found out I was pregnant with baby number two, one of the first questions people would ask was when we were moving. Not much of a surprise, because when we found out we were pregnant with Hazel (baby number 1) we'd get asked the same thing all the time. Dan and I would always respond with something along the lines of "when she needs her own room we'll probably start looking!" Buuuut then we remembered we live in Vancouver, and not only is rent expensive, it's a fight to get in the door of a decent home!

We have lived in our cozy apartment for almost 5 years, and aren't planning on moving anytime soon. Our place has one big bedroom, and a decent sized living room, that now doubles as our bedroom...and office if we're getting into details ;) We love our apartment. It has big windows, and lots of light, there isn't much to complain about. It's hella old, but it's laid out really well and feels big for a 1 bedroom 800 sqft-ish apartment. Plus our rent would double if we move, so we're stickin' it out as long as we can! Also, our besties live across the street from us. So we have basically have toddler playdates every day and its the best thing.

We did have to make a big decision when we found out we were pregnant again on whether or not to move. When we first moved out of our bedroom to give Hazel her own room, we slept on a pullout couch for a few months and then found a secondhand wall bed on Craigslist, it was incredibly heavy and we didn't love the look of it, but it did the job! We quickly realized it wasn't the best thing, the screws were stripping and it was starting to fall apart, and one day it did, it fell right off the wall. It was anchored in, but something cracked on the bottom and it lost support and just fell off the wall. Minutes after putting Hazel to bed, it was a bit traumatizing. thankfully it was stopped by the pipes we have hanging off the ceiling and didn't crush me. So we were back to square one. We slept on the mattress on the floor for a few months and then had to reassess! I started doing some research on wall beds and quickly found that for a lot of reasons Resource Furniture made our dream bed. I had been eying this bed for a long time after seeing it on local small living blogger 600Sqftandababy so Dan and I popped into their Vancouver showroom to check it out for ourselves!

There were a lot of things that quickly sold the bed to us. The biggest one was that it was safe, it has a self locking mechanism when you pull it down, which was our first priority especially with precious kiddos running around. It's incredibly slim, I'm still so surprised by how little room it takes when it's folded up. Another thing that really is important to us is they have a huge focus on sustainability. Their products are made with eco-friendly materials. They use water based, non-toxic paint. The company does everything they can to reduce waste, and leave a small carbon footprint, I love that. You can read more in detail here! Oh and lastly, they offer a lifetime warranty on this bed. It wasn't something I had really thought about until we were deciding whether or not to go for it, but I've made a big switch this last year with my wardrobe, and my daughters wardrobes, we all have a lot less, but quality pieces that hold up so much better than the cheap stuff. This mentality has sort of crept into other areas of our lives, including our furniture. We have no doubt we'll have this bed for life, hopefully, one day we'll have a home and if it's not our everyday bed, it can be a guest bed. Unless we move out of Vancouver, I doubt a bedroom of our own is something we'll have again for a while. ;)

Hazel looooves helping put the bed up, she requests her Disney playlist every morning as soon as it's up and throws on her butterfly costume and dances around. The extra space it gives us really makes all the difference on her mood, more room to dance and play!

We have loved the challenge of living in a one bedroom. We are always donating things, we've gotten really good at tetris-ing the little amount of storage we have, it forces us to only keep things we use or love, and we buy a lot less. We probably have too many plants, and shoes, but some things need exceptions, right?! When Millie moves out of her bassinet, she'll be in the mini-crib and her and Hazel will share a room. We often joke about having another kid in this apartment, but it's so doable, as crazy as that would make us, also it's too soon to even think about another kid, oy.

I am so glad we made the decision to go with our wall bed from Resource Furniture! We went with the Penelope, because I just love the clean and simple look. We've had it for almost 3 months and love it so much, I thought I'd get annoyed having to pack it up every morning, but it's SO quick and easy to just clip in and pull up, it takes a minute! We made a little video showing how easy it is, and how much space it saves. We shot this the week after Millie was born, and I can't believe how tiny she is!!

If you have any questions, comment below or you can send an email to vancouver@resourcefurniture.com.